Shopper's haul

One thing I noticed last year was, to make up for not having to go out as much to work, I spent all my "transportation money" on getting myself little "presents". Don't judge me, but I only go out about 2-3 times a month. Yes, I'm THAT anti-social friend. No, not really. Anyway, last week, I finally got what was supposed to be my "birthday present". It got lost in transit in November, and had to be re-shipped, so I guess this would be my "New Year's Present".

The tin of tictacs (they're NOT tic tacs, although I fondly call them that) belongs to my friend. It's yet to be shipped, and I am itching to see what's in it. I almost want to keep it. XD

The best "make-up present" happened that month, btw, when a nice little livestream announcement woke me out of my lovely slumber the morning of my birthday. I'll never forget that because not too many things make me do a mad dash out of bed to the office computer before I've even had breakfast. Yes, I am also THAT fangirl. Best. Birthday. Present. Ever. No, make that a nice second or third.

After my little trip from the post office, I met a friend, and whaddayaknow, we head to the bookstores! She loves bookstores for all the little trinkets she finds, but not me. Bookstores are the death of my bank account. Next to the local Bureau of Customs that recently charged me about the exact same amount I spent on band merch and shipping. Yes, they also taxed the shipping fee. *grumbles* (I am never shopping online again if it'll be shipped from one continent to another.) Anyway, I intended to get just one book:

Fully Booked in Greenbelt 5 was super helpful in tracking this down for me since all I could recall was how the cover looked like. Yes, not even the book title or author stuck to my head. I'm a visual person. I'm forever terrible with names. What was supposed to be "just one book" turned to two:

I intended to get a box set of The Song of Fire and Ice series, but the one the bookstore had was the HBO tie-in. Despite saving much more money (and space) getting the box set, I opted to get the larger, more expensive, non TV tie-in cover of it. Because I am impractical and picky like that.

And what was two, became three when we also stopped by Powerbooks. This one though, is a necessity. For some reason, handling studio lights freaks me out. Yet I still do studio shoots. But yes, setting up lights still freaks me out. Maybe because there was this one time when one of the lights we used at a shoot just exploded next to me.

I love books. I love reading. I love getting lost in another world, or another person's mind, or learning a new trick or two. I also love the smell of new books. Yes, I flip those pages and sniff. Book lovers do that. Will be writing more about some of my favorite "self-help" books soon. The Art of Non-Conformity is such fun to read.